1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus in which is inserted, from a tray located on the front of the apparatus, a media tray on which a recording medium is set, and which recording apparatus can record onto the recording medium with a recording head.
2. Description of the Related Art
A recording apparatus that records onto a recording medium by use of a recording head and based on image information typically has a structure in which the recording medium fed from a feeding means is conveyed to an image forming unit and, after recording is performed by the image forming unit, output from an output means. In the recording apparatus, when recording onto a thick recording medium such as board or onto a storage medium such as a CD-R mounted on a disc tray, the recording is performed while conveying through a flat path which is a flat conveying path different from a conveying path of a normal recording medium. Moreover, a feed/output tray that serves as both a feed tray and an output tray is used in the case of recording through the flat path.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-104590 (hereafter referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a recording apparatus that records onto a thick recording medium by providing a substantially horizontal conveying path with a removable feed/output tray. Meanwhile, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-069578 (hereafter referred to as Patent Document 2) discloses a structure in which a user changes a position of an output tray to form a substantially horizontal conveying path for thick medium conveyance.
In Patent Document 1, the feed/output tray is removable, which causes a trouble of housing the feed/output tray when not in use. Besides, recording mode settings need to be switched every time between the case of recording onto a storage medium such as a CD-R using a disc tray and the case of recording onto a recording medium wider than the disc tray. This raises the possibility that a problem such as an apparatus failure occurs due to an operational error. In Patent Document 2, on the other hand, even when the same flat path is used for recording, it is necessary to use different feed trays in the case of recording onto a storage medium mounted on a disc tray and in the case of recording onto a recording medium such as thick recording paper. Accordingly, Patent Document 2 has problems of a complicated operation and a cost increase caused by an increased number of components.
The present invention was conceived in view of these technical problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus including a feed/output tray that can be used, with no need for removal, both in the case of recording using a disc tray on which a recording medium is set and in the case of recording without using the disc tray.